Kelly Rusnak, a student at Brigham Young University, started her own clothing brand to promote healing and awareness about domestic violence.
Rusnak wrote a Ballard Brief about her experiences with emotional abuse.
"After it happened, I realized (that) the more people I talked to about it, the more people I realized had gone through similar situations," she said.
Rusnak discovered that 84.3 million women in the United States of America experience emotional abuse. 20% of them never disclose it.
“I totally resonated with that, because I remember feeling scared to tell people," Rusnak said. "Especially people who knew my abuser, because I had people that didn't believe me.”
Rusnak first came up with the idea for her clothing brand before leaving on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She decided to make it a reality when she returned.
“Having clothes, having jewelry, things that people can put upon themselves as a reminder of what they deserve and what the rest of the world deserves, is the perfect way to go about what I wanted to do,” Rusnak said.
Rusnak titled her brand You Deserve Healthy Love. She officially launched its website in February.
A portion of the profits support healing and recovery for abuse survivors in Provo.